Endangerment and Likeability of Wildlife Species: How Important are they for Payments Proposed for Conservation?

This paper examines empirically the relative influence of the degree of endangerment of wildlife species and their stated likeability on individuals' allocation of funds for their conservation. To do this, it utilises data obtained from the IUCN Red List, and likeability and fund allocation data obtained from two serial surveys of a sample of the Australian public who were requested to assess 24 Australian wildlife species from three animal classes: mammals, birds and reptiles. Between the first and second survey, respondents were provided with extra information about the focal species. This information resulted in the dominance of endangerment as the major influence on the allocation of funding of respondents for the conservation of the focal wildlife species. Our results throw doubts on the proposition in the literature that the likeability of species is the dominant influence on willingness to pay for conservation of wildlife species. Furthermore, because the public's allocation of fund for conserving wildlife species seems to be more sensitive to information about the conservation status of species than to factors influencing their likeability, greater attention to providing accurate information about the former than the latter seems justified. Keywords: Conservation of wildlife species; Contingent valuation; Endangerment of species; Likeability of species; Willingness to pay

The Behavior of Hydroxyl Units of Synthetic Goethite and its Dehydroxylated Product Hematite

The behavior of the hydroxyl units of synthetic goethite and its dehydroxylated product hematite was characterized using a combination of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) during the thermal transformation over a temperature range of 180-270 degrees C. Hematite was detected at temperatures above 200 degrees C by XRD while goethite was not observed above 230 degrees C. Five intense OH vibrations at 3212-3194, 1687-1674, 1643-1640, 888-884 and 800-798 cm(-1), and a H2O vibration at 3450-3445 cm(-1) were observed for goethite. The intensity of hydroxyl stretching and bending vibrations decreased with the extent of dehydroxylation of goethite. Infrared absorption bands clearly show the phase transformation between goethite and hematite: in particular. the migration of excess hydroxyl units from goethite to hematite. Two bands at 536-533 and 454-452 cm(-1) are the low wavenumber vibrations of Fe-O in the hematite structure. Band component analysis data of FTIR spectra support the fact that the hydroxyl units mainly affect the a plane in goethite and the equivalent c plane in hematite.

Common And Endangered Species: How Does Society Allocate Support For Their Conservation

Examines how society allocates support for species’ conservation when numbers involved are large and resources are limited. Rational behaviour suggests that species in urgent need of conservation will receive more support than those species that are common. However, we demonstrate that in the absence of balanced knowledge common species will receive support more than they would otherwise receive despite society placing high existence values on all species. Twenty four species, both common and endangered and some with a restricted distribution, are examined. We demonstrate that balanced information is vital in order to direct more support for species that are endangered than those that are not. Implications for conservation stemming from the findings are discussed.

The evolution of a community of practice at the Queensland University of Technology for lecturers involved in large first year units

Communities of practice (CoPs) may be defined as groups of people who are mutually bound by what they do together (Wenger, 1998, p. 2), that is, they “form to share what they know, to learn from one another regarding some aspects of their work and to provide a social context for that work” (Nickols, 2000, para. 1). They are “emergent” in that the shape and membership emerges in the process of activity (Lees, 2005, p. 7). People in CoPs share their knowledge and experiences freely with the purpose of finding inventive ways to approach new problems (Wenger & Snyder, 2000, p. 2). They can be seen as “shared histories of learning” (Wenger, 1998, p. 86). For some time, QUT staff have been involved in a number of initiatives aimed at sharing ideas and resources for teaching first year students such as the Coordinators of Large First Year Units Working Party. To harness these initiatives and maximise their influence, the leaders of the Transitions In Project (TIP)1 decided to form a CoP around the design, assessment and management of large first year units.

Multidisciplinary students on Property core units : comparative analysis of introductory and advanced units

The composition of many professional services firms in the Urban Development area has moved away from a discipline specific ‘silo’ structure to a more multidisciplinary environment. The benefits of multidisciplinarity have been seen in industry by providing synergies across many of the related disciplines. Similarly, the Queensland University of Technology, Bachelor of Urban Development degree has sought to broaden the knowledge base of students and achieve a greater level of synergy between related urban development disciplines through the introduction of generic and multidisciplinary units. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of delivering core property units in a multidisciplinary context. A comparative analysis has been undertaken between core property units and more generic units offered in a multidisciplinary context from introductory, intermediate and advanced years within the property program. This analysis was based on data collected from course performance surveys, student performance results, a student focus group and was informed by a reflective process from the student perspective and lecturer/ tutor feedback. The study showed that there are many benefits associated with multidisciplinary unit offerings across the QUT Urban Development program particularly in the more generic units. However, these units require a greater degree of management. It is more difficult to organise, teach and coordinate multidisciplinary student cohorts due to a difference in prior knowledge and experience between each of the discipline groups. In addition, the interaction between lecturers/ tutors and the students frequently becomes more limited. A perception exists within the student body that this more limited face to face contact with academic staff is not valuable which may be exacerbated by the quality of complimentary online teaching materials. For many academics, non-attendance at lectures was coupled with an increase in email communication. From the limited data collected during the study there appears to be no clear correlation between large multidisciplinary student classes and student academic performance or satisfaction.

A robust reactive scheduling model for intensive care units

The ICU is an integral part of any hospital and is under great load from patient arrivals as well as resource limitations. Scheduling of patients in the ICU is complicated by the two general types; elective surgery and emergency arrivals. This complicated situation is handled by creating a tentative initial schedule and then reacting to uncertain arrivals as they occur. For most hospitals there is little or no flexibility in the number of beds that are available for use now or in the future. We propose an integer programming model to handle a parallel machine reacting system for scheduled and unscheduled arrivals.